Yesterday, at the Cisco Collaboration Summit, Cisco shared information about the newest version of WebEx planned for spring 2012. It is just one of many announcements from Cisco aimed at transforming how we work to further embrace video and mobile. (If you’re asking yourself “What is WebEx? Find out here.)

Making meetings better.

No one really wants another meeting, but they are an inevitable part of doing business. But what if meetings could be better? We took a look at how we could expand WebEx to include wrap-around features that will help you make meetings more productive at work, at home or on the go. Welcome to WebEx Meeting Spaces.

With Meeting Spaces, individuals can share relevant documents prior to a meeting and access recordings of past meetings. Meeting Spaces also let users capture on-going conversation around a meeting. You can initiate conversations in the space and see if colleagues are available, and if so, utilize unified communication tools such as IM, voice and video to quickly collaborate. For someone managing a project, it means all the communication and information are captured in one place. No more chasing versions or trying to remember what someone said.

Other features make WebEx even better.

High definition (HD) video is now on WebEx. That means you can clearly see the folks in your meeting which allows you to have a smooth, personal experience. For mobile users, the new WebEx will provide two-way 720p true HD virtual video meetings. WebEx Mobile is free and available on more mobile devices than any other enterprise meeting platform in the market today.

Last month we announced an expansion of the Cisco ūmi telepresence product line with the addition of Cisco ūmi with 720p HD resolution, priced at $399. I’m happy to announce that Cisco ūmi with 720p HD resolution is available starting today at the Cisco Home Store. It is uniquely designed for homes with lower broadband speed (requires 1.5 Mbps upload/download) making it even easier for ūmi customers to expand their calling circles. Cisco ūmi offers advanced features such as video recording and sharing on Facebook or YouTube directly from the TV that other products don’t have.

The new Cisco ūmi with 720p HDresolution will also be available soon at Amazon.com. We’ve strategically expanded our distribution through Amazon.com as well as through partnerships with leading service providers as we continue to make Cisco ūmi accessible to more people across the United States, and then globally.

Since Mother’s Day is less than a week away, we’d also like to share a special offer with you: Now through May 20th, 2011, you can buy one ūmi and get one free. That’s a savings of up to $499, and a great way to make mom very happy on her special day. Visit Cisco.com/umi for details on the ūmi “buy one get one free” special offer. And while you are there, be sure to learn about ūmi’s latest product features, including the ability to:

record videos and share them on Facebook or YouTube directly from your TV,

view ūmi messages while on the go with the Cisco ūmi mobile app for iOS and Android and use your smartphone as a remote control for your ūmi system (coming in the near future)

In fact the vast majority of our sales force in Africa, 7 out of 10 employees, now have access to this flagship communication and collaboration tool at their local Cisco office. This means they can meet face to face in a life-size virtual meeting with colleagues, customers and partners across the globe without the need to travel, as if they were sat in the same meeting room just across the table from one another. So what are we doing for the remaining 30% of employees on the continent who do not have access to this capability?

In my last blog, “Africa – Connected Continent – At last”, I described how the arrival of affordable internet bandwidth in Africa is enabling companies to use technology to transform how they do business. Today at Cisco we have realised huge efficiencies in how we conduct our business internally and we have fundamentally changed how we communicate and collaborate with customers and partners, thanks to TelePresence.

TelePresence allow people to meet face to face over the network without the need to travel. Participants enjoy a high definition, high quality, life-size video experience and can share rich media content. We can now bring in subject matter experts from over one thousand Cisco TelePresence rooms across the globe and put them together with the vast majority of our workforce in Africa as if they were sat just across the table from each another; all at the touch of a button. In fact we can connect Cisco’s TelePresence rooms with any customer or partner TelePresence room, provided they have a B2B exchange with Cisco, so the possibilities are huge.

On Thursday, March 24th, over 120 women came together to network, learn and share ideas with one another. Many of these strong and empowering women were entrepreneurs and bloggers who travel and may not get the opportunity to connect with friends and family as often as they would like to.

We demoed Cisco ūmi at the BlogHer networking event, highlighting one of my favorite features: recording a video message in high-definition straight from your television and uploading it directly to Facebook, YouTube and Flipshare.

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